Today Primary 6 went into the upper school playground to carry out a survey of the type of insects that live in our school grounds. They worked in groups to survey soft ground surfaces, hard man-made surfaces and on plants and trees and recorded what they saw in tally charts. They used magnifiers to help them see the bugs up close and used the Seek  and iNaturalist apps to help them identify any unfamiliar bugs.  We undertake this survey every year to check which species are surviving in our grounds and also to find if there are any new invasive species appearing due to them moving into our country from warmer countries now that our climate is also becoming warmer.

The pupils found a Two Spotted Ladybird on a wall and we were delighted to see this creature again this year as the non-native Harlequin Ladybird is now causing it to decline in  numbers.  We did not see any Green Shield bugs this year for the first time. These used to be found in Southern England but are moving northwards, but we did see another type of Shield Bug that we had never seen before in our surveys. We think it may be a Forest Bug but we are waiting to see what the iNaturalist community makes of it. There is a picture of it below. We also identified different types of bees in our Eco garden where they frequent the wildflower beds looking for nectar, including a Red tailed bumble bee and an Early Bumble Bee.  We also found slugs, woodlice, spiders, aphids, thrips, a huge black beetle, a snail, ants and flies, but not one earthworm, no doubt due to the ground being so dry. Here are some pictures from the survey: